Shaman tactics
General tactics Weapon choice All Shamans can use staves, one-handed axes and maces, daggers, fist weapons, and shields. With talents, a Shaman may also learn to use two-handed axes and maces and Dual Wielding. Dual Wielding Shaman do not often train in two-handed weapons. Most mid- and high-level Shamans carry several weapons - generally a two-handed weapon, a one-handed weapon, and a shield. Lower-level characters will generally choose one weapon set, and not carry spares. Dual Wielding Shamans will, of course, carry a second one-handed weapon. Weapon choice will change depending on the situation, and your spec. * Enhancement Shaman will almost always use their chosen specialized weapon combination, preferring to DPS down the mobs before they take much damage. * Elemental Shaman will almost always prefer a shield to assist them in taking less damage. In instances, they may choose to use a staff, if their staff has better stats (intellect, +damage, spell crit, etc) than their one-handed weapon and shield combination. * Restoration Shaman will make their choice similar to Elemental Shaman, although their important stats will be different. Some basic tips for selecting a weapon combination: * Against melee opponents, you may want to use your shield to mitigate damage. * Against casters, use the 2H weapon. Spells ignore armour when determining damage so the shield provides little value. Your goal is to kill them quickly using both weapon damage and spells. * When healing, the weapon's attributes should determine which configuration you choose as you will most likely not be engaged in combat as a healer. For example, if your staff has a +int buff on it, then you would select that weapon so as to increase your mana pool. Weapon speed Fast weapons are recommended for non-Stormstrike/non-PvP Shamans, especially Elemental and Restoration Shamans, who use Flametongue Weapon, as Flametongue Weapon scales much better on faster weapons. Before The Burning Crusade, slower weapons were recommended for Stormstriking Shamans, and for PvP in general. This was because Windfury would hit, and often crit, dealing a lot of damage. Immediately following a Windfury proc with Stormstrike and Earth Shock would often result in an instant kill, before the target had a chance to heal, be healed, or run. With the changes to Windfury since the release of the expansion, coupled with the much larger health pools of level 70 characters in relation to damage caused, slower weapons will not cause such burst damage. In fact, duel-wielding Shamans are now recommended to use fast weapons as well, particularly in the off-hand. Combat Whatever weapon choice you make, make sure you have a weapon buff on at all times. If you are soloing, always keep your Lightning Shield or Water Shield (which came with TBC) active, and be prepared to reactivate it in the middle of combat, possibly repeatedly (preferably after casting another spell, so as to not needlessly trip the 5 second rule). If you are in a group and are playing a support/healing role, you may want to be careful about activating Lightning Shield, since it will tend to make it harder to pull aggro from you. The standard pull technique for a shaman is Lightning Bolt, followed by a Flame Shock. Since Shocks are instant, this in effect damages the mob two times before it has time to react. Lightning Bolt is the most mana efficient damage spell, Flame Shock the most mana efficient shock (but has the weakest crit, and deals the least threat). After this initial burst damage, single non-elite mobs should not require further spell casting. It is a good idea to keep lower-powered versions of Earth Shock and Frost Shock in reserve, to interrupt casters and to slow runners, should the necessity arise. However, caster-based shamans (i.e. elemental shaman who wear some cloth or just have low armor but a lot of mana) tend to pull with a Lightning Bolt, then Frost Shock when the enemy is in range, then back away from the enemy, continuously using Frost Shock and stopping to cast Lightning Bolt whenever able. With this method a shaman with a high mana pool is able to effectively kite enemies, even elites (at a level within reason). For shamans prior to level 30, it is a good idea to always have a Stoneskin Totem up. After that, Stoneskin Totem is only useful if you're fighting many small mobs, against single targets Strength of Earth Totem is better later on. If you expect fights to take longer than 30 seconds, it is a good idea to place all four totems before the pull. Which totems to place is largely situational. For example, the Searing Totem will crank up your damage curve, but in close quarters it may accidentally attack monsters before you have a chance to use Totemic Call. Shamans shine as burst casters. In order to maximize their limited mana pool, shamans fare better in fights where they can expend their mana in chunks. For example, using the pulling strategy described above, followed by 2-4 totems and a refreshed Lightning Shield, will allow the Shaman to rely on melee for a while until their mana can regenerate. Totems You need to undertake certain quests to gain your totems; however, you need not go out of your way to do these quests with all possible haste. The level at which you are available for these quests is far enough below the level when you gain the spells that require the totem. You should do them at earliest opportunity, but find quests in the same area you are going so you can maximize the (often sizable) travel time these quests require. Using your totems to maximum advantage is more art than science. Since you can only use one of each element at a time, which one you select will depend on the situation you are in. Talents Selecting talents effectively is a bit more subtle than with some of the other classes. The Enhancement tree is typically the level grinding talent tree. Most shamans pick this as their primary tree pre-70. It allows for the shaman to kill a few monsters, then heal themselves to full, then repeat. This is a popular tree even at 70, although it takes good equipment to keep up with other classes in end-game DPS and suffers from being a glass cannon without crowd control in PvP. Itemization pre-TBC is exceptionally poor for this tree. In TBC class set items are not geared for enhancement shamans and the few that are are not itemized very well. Fortunately non-set items are available that are wonderful for Enhancement shamans and have allowed them to preform at an extremely competitive level. Elemental is typically the end-game PvP shaman's primary tree. A properly equipped elemental shaman is the highest DPS class in the game until he runs out of mana. The lightning mastery talent subtracts a full second off of the cast time of the shaman's lightning bolt and chain lightning, but allows the spells to be effected by +spell damage as if they were still a second slower. Reduced spell costs and increased spell damage are the base of this tree, but are also two of the most powerful talents in the tree. Elemental Mastery offers a mana-free 100% crit nuke, once every 3 minutes. EM is best used with Chain Lightning as it causes all three bounces to crit, and when combined with a +spell damage trinket (Talisman of Ephemeral Power or Zandalar Hero Charm) can land for an amazing amount of damage, even on a poorly equipped shaman. This tree is best paired with Restoration as your high +spell damage will result in being an exceptional healer, when forced to heal in raid situations. Resto is the Healing tree. 70% chance to not be interrupted while casting heals make you a better combat healer. Increased range on your totems, cheaper heals, and stronger heals are all in this tree. Nature's Swiftness grants an instant cast spell once every 3 minutes. This allows for an instant Healing Wave or instant Chain Lightning every 3 minutes. In 2.01 Mana Tide totem has become a % of mana granted and now gives your group roughly 30% of their total mana back every 5 minutes. Earth Shield is simply amazing. Every time the target with the Earth Shield buff is damaged there is a 1/3 chance that they will be healed for a small amount plus your +healing amount. Natures swiftness, Mana Tide, Earth Shield, and Improved Chain heal make this tree excel at end game raid healing. Good talent builders are available at WoWhead and World of Warcraft. Key spells As with all classes, some of the shaman's spells are more useful than others. Some have uses that are not immediately obvious. * Shocks are a valuable part of the Shaman class. Earth Shock is extremely useful against casters or in PvP to disrupt casting. Other useful shocks are Flame Shock for direct damage and Frost Shock for snaring targets. * Ghost Wolf has been called the best ability in the game by some and aids escaping significantly, particularly with the Improved Ghost Wolf talent or Nature's Swiftness (which makes it instant-cast). The PvP honor system boots Blood Guard's Mail Greaves give an additional 15% speed boost. * Astral Recall allows Shamans to teleport to their Hearth location every 15 minutes. It is on a separate timer to the Hearth Stone allowing the Shaman to Hearth home without using up a precious 1hr cooldown. * Mana Spring Totem and Mana Tide Totem are two totems that will appeal to all grouped casting classes. Increasing the mana regeneration of a party is one of the most vital roles a Shaman will play and significantly reduces the down time of your group. * Grounding Totem is a kind of pre-cast counterspell. Its casting cost is low (100 mana), and it absorbs every single-target (non-aoe) detrimental spell cast at the shaman or his group while the totem buff is active, but is destroyed by the first direct damage spell it absorbs. * Reincarnation is a unique ability - Shaman is the only class with a self-rez. Warlocks have a similar ability with their Soulstones, as with these, Shamans should be very careful about the spots where they die. PvE tactics Solo PvE tactics When soloing, totems that affect your group will, naturally, not be as cost-effective. Often, you will want to reserve mana for Lesser Healing Waves, so might not drop totems as often. You will almost always be more than a match for a single mob of equal, or even slightly higher, level. If you find yourself fighting more than one mob, a Stoneclaw Totem can provide the time you need to finish off one before the other destroys the totem. When fighting multiple opponents, it will be worth throwing in some extra damage spells. Nature's Swiftness comes in handy if you find yourself hurting while in these situations. Group PvE tactics The Shaman can play many roles in a group, including melee, caster, and support. He is not as strong as a specialist at any of these, but he can quickly shift gears if needed. Some general notes: * Stoneskin Totem is useful sometimes. If you are being attacked by multiple lower level mobs it can put a nice sized dent in their damage. * Strength of Earth Totem is helpful to all classes dealing melee DPS. * Disrupting enemy casters with Earth Shock helps deal with healers and ranged casters * Windfury Totem dramatically increases the DPS and rage buildup of your frontline warriors, Windfury Totem is useful for hemo/Sinister strike rogues. However, for dagger rogues Grace of Air Totem is superior. Keep in mind that if you choose to use Grace of Air Totem, you can still boost your group's melee damage with Flametongue Totem. * Fire totems consume large amounts of mana, and should be used sparingly, especially if playing as the healer. Fire totems are good AoE, but each have their own down side. * Quick casts of Cure Disease and Cure Poison can cancel enemy DoT attacks (You can also use Poison Cleansing Totem and Disease Cleansing Totem for large groups or repeated poisoning/diseasing.) * Frost Shock and Earthbind Totem can slow down enemy adds or prevent fleeing mobs from gathering reinforcements. * Grounding Totem and Tremor Totem are situationally useful -- against casters, grounding totem is useful for its cost; it can also absorb Curses and other non-damaging Debuffs. Tremor Totem wakes Sleep and counters Fear, although the latter function is hampered by the slow pulse rate of the totem. * Healing Stream Totem and Mana Spring Totem add a good curve to your total heals if you use them correctly. +heal effects do come into play with these making them extremely effective. With TBC you can possibly get up to 70 health per click (most likely more, as of what I've heard it's yet to get much attention). Sadly, the first rank of Mana Spring Totem does not give you much mana compared to what you spent to place it, but it does give a boost to all of your team-mates. Raid PvE tactics *You best serve the raid placed in a homogenized group (only melee types and hunters, or only mana-users). *If you are in a group with much melee, you should place Strength of Earth Totem and Windfury Totem, Grace of Air Totem, Wrath of Air Totem, Totem of Wrath or possibly Tranquil Air Totem if you are not in a main tank group. Healing Stream Totem can sometimes be useful if you have enough +healing stacked. *If you are in a group with hunters or rogues, Grace of Air Totem should be used along with Mana Spring Totem and Strength of Earth Totem. *If you are in a group with casters, Mana Spring Totem, Wrath of Air Totem are best, along with Mana Tide Totem or Totem of Wrath if you have it. *In a fear fight, such as with Magmadar or Onyxia, place Tremor Totem in the middle of where your group will be situated. *In a fight where you will take a lot of elemental damage, such as with Ragnaros, place the appropriate resistance totem (Fire Resistance Totem, Nature Resistance Totem, or Frost Resistance Totem). Resto raiding Though you will not be as good at single target healing as a priest or druid, you can easily surpass them and be exceptionally useful through the use of chain heal. *Generally, Healing Wave is the best option for raid healing because it receives the most benefit from your +healing gear and is more mana efficient. If you find yourself over-healing (wasting mana healing a teammate for more then their maximum health), use a ranked-down heal. *If your target for healing took a critical strike or several people are being hit for moderate damage, Lesser Healing Wave is a good emergency heal to buy time until you can cast a bigger Healing Wave. While healing, it is usually best to stay as far away from your healing target as possible while still being in healing range in case they have to move a little bit. Most of the time, main tank healing will be reserved for priests and druids. When healing the main tank, use Earth Shield and Healing Wave to take advantage of Healing Way. When spot-healing, a downranked healing wave or lesser healing wave is good but do not underestimate chain heal (especially with talents) as it is a 'smart' heal and will jump to the most injured players. Raiding gear Since you will be healing most of the time in raids, you want to look for the stats that will help you in the regard. The attributes to focus on are: *Mana/5 *+Healing *Intellect *Stamina The set The Earthshatterer from Naxxramas is an excellent example of gear optimized for shaman healing. The Molten Core set (Tier 1) is also excellent healing gear. Raiding talents Most of the Restoration tree is very useful for raiding as a shaman. The most important talents include: *Healing Focus *Nature's Swiftness *Purification *Mana Tide Totem *Earth Shield *Healing Way *To a lesser degree, Totemic Focus and Ancestral Healing are useful raiding talents. Enhancement Raiding Enhancement raiders can expect to spend 70-90% of their time DPSing and 30-10% of their time healing. Enhancement raiders bring the strongest buffs of any class/spec to a physical damage group and are often undervalued until one is seen in action. In most fights the Enhancement raider will function exactly like a rogue with the exception that he buffs the party and has useful utility totems such as tremor totem, grounding totem, and resist totems (which allow him to replace the holy paladin in the main tank's group). Also the ability of a shaman to drop multiple resist totems is an invaluable asset in some fights. There are a few fights that are extremely melee unfriendly or simply require an immense amount of healing. This is where it becomes even more beneficial to have an enhancement shaman over say a 2nd rogue as he can put on healing gear and not only become another healer but reduce the number of people in melee range without become dead weight to the party. Raiding gear Hit ratings stated assume +9% hit from talents (notice that we need significantly more +hit than rogues and warriors due to different game mechanics) all stats stated in table above are unbuffed. *Bare minimum: are stats that are the absolute minimum in any one area you can have and expect to raid. If you fall below in any category you will be pretty much dead weight. *Acceptable: these numbers are easily achievable with blue gear and will bring you to an average/good contribution to the party. *Target Numbers: These numbers will give you top performance and if you hit one of them you are better off investing in another lacking stat in the future as you will see a greater overall increase to your raid contribution. Raiding talents The Enhancement Tree is a fairly straightforward path but here are some of the essential talents for raiding. * Dual Wield * Dual Wield Specialization * Unleashed Rage * Enhancing Totems or Improved Weapon Totems there is some debate as to which is better * Nature's Guidance * Totemic Mastery The importance of this to a spread out raid group cannot be understated * Shamanistic Rage This ability truly comes into it's own on a boss fight as you will find the need for extra mana mid-fight. The high attack power of a well geared raider will give you wonderful mana return allowing you to sustain a higher level of combat for much longer than you would be able to otherwise. Elemental Raiding Elemental raiders will find themselves in a similar situation as most casters with the exception that they also need to buff the party. Elemental/resto gives a little more off-healing ability than Enhancement/resto due to gear compatibility between elemental and resto. Elemental shamans can expect to spend most of their time doing damage and buffing the party but should not be afraid to throw the odd heal out mid fight. Raiding gear Due to the change in the Elemental Focus talent (your next damage spell's cost is reduced by 100% after you crit with a damage spell) spell crit has become the #1 stat for elemental raiders. Elemental raiders should shoot for close to 30% crit (with talents) then start focusing on spell damage and finally int and stam. Make sure you are critting for at least 2k with your lighting bolt before you start to invest heavily in crit however. Stat progression: *1) Get your crit rating with your lightning bolt to 20% (can get 11% from talents so this should not be difficult at all). *2) Get enough spell damage to crit for 2k damage on a lightning bolt. *3) Get up to 27% crit with lightning bolt. *4) Work on increasing your spell damage and crit equally until you hit about 30% LB crit rating. *5) Focus solely on + spell damage. See also: Shaman Elemental Equipment Raiding talents These talents are very important/useful for raid situations * Lighting Mastery * Convection * Concussion * Elemental Focus You must have this talent * Elemental Fury * Elemental Precision * Totemic Mastery * Tidal Mastery * Totem of Wrath This spell is designed for raids, is very useful in raids, gives a useful fire totem to caster shamans (an otherwise unused totem) and should not be overlooked by a raiding shaman due to it's lack of non raiding capabilities. It is however the subject of hot debate and some people may not find it worth taking over Nature's Swiftness. PvP Tactics Solo PvP tactics One good trick involves some quick mouse work. When trying to escape an opponent, autorun away from them. Then, jump, quickly rotate around in the air, Frost Shock, and rotate back before you land. This allows you to snare your opponent with no loss in forward momentum. A good way to open a fight is to cast a lightning bolt, then a chain lightning, and then a shock. This will provide high burst DPS as the slow moving lightning bolt will hit close to the chain lightning and the shock or damage other nearby enemies. Enhancement Dual Wielding can destroy cloth very quickly. A good tactic is to drop a SoE totem and a GoA totem. Frost shock if you want to chase enemies and get massive crits from behind, Earth Shock to interrupt casting, Flame shock to stop rogues stealthing. Group PvP tactics (personal opinion) Here's what I think a Shaman's role in group PvP is: 1. Kill enemies. 2. Heal/save allies if you can, but don't disregard rule #1. It's generally pretty simple to snare a Rogue that's chasing after a caster, or to Earth Shock a Mage while he is casting a spell at an ally. Enhancement shamans are great against casters (Mages, Warlocks, Priests, non-feral Druids) and we should chop them up as quickly as possible Earth Shocks is a killer here, but in group PvP, you can't spam it, due to it's high mana cost. Grounding totem and lightning shield are awesome against these classes as they continue to work even after you have been feared/sheeped. Typically the best strategy against a rogue, which is easily our biggest enemy for enhancement shamans, is to not fight them. If you get jumped, bail out. Shock and Ghost wolf. An even geared rogue will destroy an even geared enhancement shaman. This might change with all the stamina gear from BC. Once the rogue can no longer stunlock you, you can easily out DPS the rogue. Unfortunately, a good rogue can get you down to at least 40% before cheap shot and kidney shot wear off. Elemental shamans are extremely useful against melee resistant (Warriors, Paladins, Rogues, Bear druids) characters due to the extremely high burst DPS and because others will have difficulties against them. If they try to melee you, frost shock, earthbind, and/or warstomp and run. Your best damage is lightning bolts and you can't really throw them while you're being hit in melee. In mass melee, when you run hopefully the aggressor will switch to a closer target which will allow you to turn and devastate with your bolts. In 1v1 combat, your shocks and lightning shield should be more than enough to take them down with the exception of paladins and druids; who will require you to speed dps/focus fire in order to beat their healing/shield abilities. Rogues are actually a lot easier for elemental shamans. Lightning shield and magma totem (or even searing totem) can give rogues a ton of problems due to the ability to DPS the rogue even while stunlocked. Yes, with the caveat that frost shock can be extremely effective psychologically against your opponent. An opponent running at 50% movement speed and being run around is going to have only one thing on their mind: Get to you, and kill you. An average opponent at this point will not be fighting nearly as well as usual, and will make mistake after mistake. Equally, using a slow weapon against a rogue, keeping them frost shocked and only getting near enough to them to swing as your weapon becomes ready will drastically reduce their DPS. The only catch to this is dagger rogues, who have numerous abilities to stop you in your tracks. It is best to entirely kite them using repeated frost shocks until they are at least half health. Also, depending what rank of which shock you have most recently received makes a huge difference in damage. My frost shock will, in a few levels, surpass my flame shock by approximately 40 damage I believe, and chain casting flame shock takes away around 1/4 of the total damage. (50% damage instantly, 50% over 12 seconds, recast after 6 seconds is 50% of the dot, thus 25% of the overall damage). Finally, frost shock is the only shock to use against a hunter. Given the chance to either wing clip you and run, they will do so immediately, and a shaman does rather poorly against a hunters ranged dps unless he is a very good elemental or resto shaman. Raid PvP tactics In each battleground, Shaman can do a lot. If your group stays close to each other, totems will be an advantage. You can choose to spend your time beating face with whatever weapon you have, or you can take on a support role. Keep your mana pool in mind -- with all of the totem dropping + shocking + healing that you can do, odds are you're out of mana before you're out of health unless multiple people are beating on you... if you're out of mana, dying in Battlegrounds will bring you back with nearly full mana in under 30 seconds. Overall, a Shaman can be really helpful everywhere you want to be. About Shocks in Battleground PvP Flame Shock - any class with stealth abilities Frost Shock - any situation where you need to slow someone Earth Shock - interruption of casters You can use the very inexpensive Rank 1 effect of these spells to achieve the same secondary effects (damage over time to break stealth, slow, and spell interruption) if you're concerned about mana availability. The rank of the shock will not affect their ability to resist. Build a custom toolbar or hotkey that places these lower rank spells within easy reach so that you're not fumbling around to find them. In a lot of cases you don't need to do direct damage to be effective in PvP. Keeping this in mind makes you a fantastic addition to your team in PvP. Warsong Gulch A Shaman makes an adequate flag runner, but Druids are better. Remember that Ghost Wolf is a dispellable magic effect -- it can be removed from you, then you're left carrying the flag without being fast. You can't shapeshift out of restraint effects like a Druid can, so you are easily rooted or slowed. Since Patch 1.10, you can rely on your trinkets while in Ghost Wolf form. This gives you more tools to use while carrying the flag, such as *Insignia of the Horde to get out of stun or snare effects *Defiler's Talisman, which provides you with a little bit of damage absorption when activated *or Nifty Stopwatch, which gives you an additional speed boost. If you're engaged in melee combat while carrying the flag, don't forget to put on your shield for some extra damage reduction. You can support your team's runner by dropping Earthbind Totems and healing. You don't have to worry about aggro from PvE mobs, so dropping your searing totem can be extra DPS. Magma Totem will break rogue or druid stealth usually before they can get to you. Tremor Totem can interrupt fear effects, and using purge on priests or other cloth mobs will remove their self buffs -- dropping someone by 54-70 stamina points has a noticeable, immediate impact on their survivability. If you are simply there to farm Honor Kills, Placing a Sentry totem on top of the Alliance Base roof is a good tactic because you can see if their are any ally for you to Tear to shreds. Arathi Basin Always drop Tremor Totem when defending a node - it does not help against rogue stuns but it will help with fear and charm effects from priests and warlocks. Arathi Basin means small groups of people fighting in one place - your totems can make a serious difference. Make sure that if you are defending a node that everyone at that node is in the same group with you, because buff totems only affect people in your 5 man group, not the entire raid. From the Lumbermill, the forgotten Far Sight spell can be used to great effect. If you have 2-3 people defending you at that node, you can spy down to the Stables, Blacksmith, and Farm for any incoming groups or to check on the progress of your attack. Sentry Totem can also be used to great effect. Alterac Valley AV can be difficult for Shaman, because it's often a ranged zerg-fest. An elemental shaman can hang back and drop Chain Lightning and Lightning Bolt into big fights, and tab-selecting opponents to cast Purge can also be effective. This can be especially effective against anyone relying on priest or mage buffs for that extra edge (Power Word: Fortitude or Arcane Intellect). Shaman do have one trick up their sleeve specific to AV - the notorious archers in each tower have huge range and decent DPS - they need to be killed to make progress into the Alliance camp. Well, A shaman can kill them at their maximum range. Drop the totem to protect you partially against ranged attacks, add Stoneskin Totem, add Healing Stream Totem, use your shield, activate lightning shield and refresh it while healing yourself. Those archers have something like 4000 hp and will die after a while due to how Lightning Shield will proc against ranged attacks. Therefore, a shammy (and in theory troll Priests) can kill archers at a huge distance minutes before they'd otherwise be engaged. If you're hanging out of the fight to heal, casting Chain heal over and over into the fight is very mana efficient. With three targets, it's the most effective heal in the Shaman arsenal, and everyone in the big fight below will appreciate every little bit of healing you can add to the mix. For direct damage near-instant kills, a shaman with Nature's Swiftness can cast a normal Chain Lightning, follow with earth or frost shock, use NS, then follow with another Chain Lightning. Situationally, this can be of great use in AV because you're almost guaranteed three targets for each Chain lightning. See Also *Shaman: Working with Other Classes *Shaman: How to Kill A... *Shaman: How to Help A... Category:Shamans Category:Tactics